Over the past few decades, improvements in solar cell development, battery technology and the increasing availability of solar panel installers have made it a more appetising option for many homeowners, office landlords and construction companies.

Because of improved efficiency and better storage options, solar is a more viable option than ever before for home and business use.

At the same time, however, despite decades of attempts, only one solar-powered car reached the production stage and made it to prospective owners in incredibly limited capacities.

The Lightyear car company was originally founded in 2017 by students from the Eindhoven University of Technology’s Solar Team Eindhoven, which won all four of the Cruiser Class editions of the World Solar Challenge in Australia.

Their first vehicle, the Lightyear One, was intended to be a five-door saloon car with 130kW power output produced by a combination of the solar panels across the bonnet and roof and a 60kWh battery that would be charged in the sun and allow for additional range on days when the sun did not shine.

It was originally announced in June 2019 with a projected production date of 2021 and a starting price of €119,000 (£102,000), although in part due to the manufacturing disruption that took place in 2020, the price would increase and the production start date would be delayed.

The rechristened Lightyear 0 would start to be delivered at the end of 2022 for €250,000 (£215,000), more than double the original cost, and the production of the car was limited to one per week to people in the UK, EU, Norway and Switzerland.

It would quickly get worse than this, however, as this slow rate of production would last a single month before Lightyear pulled the plug, letting the subsidiary producing it go bankrupt.

However, unlike the many other prototype solar cars, it did make it to production and therefore can be credited as the world’s first production solar car, even if it is also amongst the rarest cars of all time.

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